


The Last Hurrah of Holodeck 2

by m_class



Category: Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: (and some char developement for poor later-season Chakotay my gawd), Birthday, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Fluffety floofety fluff, Holodecks/Holosuites, Humor, Non-Sexual Intimacy, With a mild dash of, for the sake of some
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-12
Updated: 2016-06-12
Packaged: 2018-07-14 15:10:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,943
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7176893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/m_class/pseuds/m_class
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Naomi Wildman's birthday celebration was interrupted by a harrowing red alert, and now the crew is determined to make up for it at her re-do party--even if that means engaging in party games that normally would be beneath a grown Starfleet officer's dignity.</p><p>But B'Elanna has finally figured out how to merge the holodecks' power source with the rest of the power-starved ship, so this is the holodecks' last hurrah. Or is it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Last Hurrah of Holodeck 2

**Author's Note:**

  * For [abrokenpieceoftruth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/abrokenpieceoftruth/gifts).



> I wholeheartedly agree with those who are happy that Naomi got to be a normal young kid rather than a super-genius a la Wesley. But she's still quite the smarty, and as we all know, very young kids can sometimes come up with solutions to problems that adults block themselves from seeing...so this is my attempt to give her her due as Naomi Wildman, Captain's (and Engineer's) Assistant!
> 
> Sections 1-3 are pure floofy fluff, with a bit of hurt/comfort in section 4 as an excuse for a good ol' innocent...well, you'll see ;-)

"Ten...nine...eight...Seven-who-better-find-a-good-hiding-place...six...five...four...three....two...one!" Naomi hollers, removing her hands from her eyes. "Ready or not, here I come!"

From her hiding place behind a large holographic boulder, Captain Kathryn Janeway grins to herself. After a particularly harrowing red alert interrupted Naomi's birthday celebration last week, resulting in the girl spending nine hours huddled in a neighboring crewman's quarters while the red alert wailed and her mother helped solve the crisis on the bridge, Janeway and the rest of the bridge crew would have moved heaven and earth to make the smallest crewmember's wildest dreams come true for the do-over party.

"Commander Chakotay! Found you! You're behind that tree!"

Naomi, after being assured that yes, anyone that she wanted to attend her party would be given the afternoon off-- _anyone_ \--hesitantly and then with greater and greater glee had requested just one thing: the entire senior staff, along with all Naomi and her mother's friends from the xenobiology department and across the ship, would attend her birthday barbecue on the holodeck.

And play any game she chose.

"I see you, Captain!"

"You got me," Janeway says ruefully, stepping out from behind the rock.

"Red doesn't blend in very well, Captain. You both should have worn forest-colored clothes." Naomi bounces on her heels, grinning in triumph. "I bet all the helm-steer-ers will be real easy to find, too!" She speeds off toward the pond.

In short order, the rest of the crew members participating in Naomi's game have been found. Sam Wildman shoots the group a grateful, affectionate look as Naomi, practically glowing with happiness, reminds them that first found is next to seek. "And Commander Chakotay is really smart. So you need _smart_ hiding places!"

The gleam in her eye as she spoke those words is explained when Chakotay finishes his countdown. Janeway can see from her spot under the picnic table that Naomi is standing directly behind Chakotay, shifting to stay behind him as he moves.  
  
She feels a light tap on her shoulder. Tuvok--who has elected to sit at the appetizer-covered picnic table and chat with the other party guests who retreated here after one token round of the highly undignified and illogical game--is passing her a tortilla chip loaded with guacamole. She rests her hand in his for a moment, signing _Thank you, Lieutenant!_ in Vulcan Standard Sign Language.

_You are welcome, Captain. You will need to keep your strength up to survive this escapade, I am sure._

Crunching on the free snack, Janeway returns her attention to Chakotay, who was actually fooled for a good minute, but soon catches a glimpse of motion out of the corner of his eye.

Naomi is too old to really believe Chakotay would fall for her ruse for long, but young enough to enjoy his joking performance. "Oh no. Wherever can Naomi be? I've looked everywhere and I just don't see her!" he chuckles, spinning to the left and right as she giggles and swerves to avoid his eyes. "Wait--I think I hear something! Is she--is she--there she is!" He wheels too fast for her to duck, catching her by the shoulders and spinning her through the air before setting her on her feet again. She, Janeway, and Harry are all helpless with laughter by now, and Chakotay follows the giggles of the latter two to their hiding places easily.  
  
They play for another half-hour, gradually wearing through all the good hiding spots in the holo-setting. One science ensign has a particular knack for strategy, puzzling Janeway for several minutes after she finds the rest of the players, only for her to finally notice him sitting with the non-participants at the picnic table. He's been chatting and laughing as cool as a cucumber with a drink in his hand and watching Neelix grill without a care in the world, blending into the one spot she hadn't even thought to glance at. She makes a mental note to pay special attention to him next time crew evaluations come around, to see if he's been displaying that strategic thinking at work as well, making him a good candidate for bridge shifts. _Who says party games don't have any use to the running of a starship?_  
  
Her smile turns downward as she reflects on what the jubilation of the day had briefly caused her to forget: this is the last holo-bash for the forseeable future. B'Elanna has finally made the technological breakthrough that will allow the holodeck's power source to be made compatible with the main grid.

It's some of the best news to crop up in the realm of ships' systems since their arrival inn the Delta Quadrant. When they get home, B'Elanna might be awarded a graduate engineering degree on the basis of the work she's poured into this energy conversion project alone. But there's no longer any excuse to use the holodecks for non-essential functions.  
  
Pushing aside her wistfulness, Janeway reflects that they aren't exactly using the holographically generated environment to its full potential. Trees, rocks, a barbecue pit...They can have all this next shore leave.  
  
Why not give Holodeck 2 a fitting last hoorah, and really make this a day for the birthday girl to remember?  
  
"One more round?" Naomi begs her mother as Janeway silently works out the details of her plan.  
  
"Well, all right," says Sam, grinning. "One more round, then it's time for cake!"  
  
"It was Commander Chakotay's turn to seek," puts in Janeway innocently. And as Chakotay puts his hands over his eyes and starts to count, she beckons Naomi over to her and leans down to whisper something in her assistant's ear.  
  
***

"Do you think she left the holodeck?" Chakotay asks helplessly.  
  
"Naomi is very scrupulous, Commander," Janeway points out in her calmest, roundest ready room meeting voice. "I doubt she would break any clearly stated rules of the game."  
  
Chakotay sighs, wiping a slight sheen of sweat from his forehead. "I've criss-crossed this 'deck from one end of another. I've climbed, I've ducked, I even checked to see if she was hiding in the pond with an oxygen tank!" His mock-angry diatribe is interrupted by a smothered laugh from behind him. He whirls.  
  
"Oh, do _you_ know where she is, Ensign Kim?"  
  
"What? Oh no, Commander. No, sir," Harry answers, fighting valiently to keep a straight face.  
  
"And you, B'Elanna. I know that look. You know something."  
  
B'Elanna widens her eyes in innocence--not a particularly convincing look on her, Janeway has to admit. "Chakotay, I have no idea what you're talking about."  
  
"And you!" He whirls to confront Tom. "What ill-begotten plan have you cooked up this time?"  
  
Tom just throws him his most insubortinate devil-may-care grin and crosses his arms.  
  
Chakotay drops his own arms to his sides, gazing around at the group in defeat.  
  
"Commander Chakotay," Seven of Nine says calmly, after a few moments of silence, "I believe that the bridge crew's superior knowledge of your predicament does not come from prior knowledge, but rather the obviousness of Naomi Wildman's location of concealment."  
  
It's not enough information to give him a proper hint, but just enough to torment him with the word 'obvious' and the further snickers of the assembled crew. Janeway throws Seven a look of deep approval.

After a few seconds, he whirls, as though Naomi might have actually pulled off the hiding-behind-him gambit this time.  
  
Though he doesn't see her, it's close enough to the mark that the group errupts in laughter. Harry wipes a tear from his eye as Janeway sinks to her knees, helpless with mirth.

A minute later, the giggles are finally dying out.

All except one piping voice, laughing on and on in pent-up, unrestrained glee and triumph.

Slowly, Chakotay looks up.

From her spot floating one foot above his head, Naomi smiles brightly down at him.  
  
"Hey! No fair!"  
  
"No one said anything about adjusting holodeck parameters, Commander," Janeway points out.  
  
Suspended above Chakotay, Naomi turns a slow somersault, then curtsies graciously.  
  
"And no one said this was supposed to be a team game, Captain." He tries his best to compose his face into a glare, but can't quite smother his own laughter.  
  
"The crew of a starship need to work together. This was an excellent chance to practice that principle," she returns smoothly.  
  
Above Chakotay's head, Naomi has returned to the silent monkey impressions that she has been perfecting as Chakotay searched for her and the rest of the found players watched.  
  
Harry adds, "Sometimes the crew of a starship needs to come up with unorthodox problem-solving strategies, too."  
  
" _You_ ," Chakotay says sternly, "have been learning from _entirely_ the wrong role models since the very beginning of your very first mission with the 'fleet. And your role model--" he turns his attempt at a glare onto Janeway, "reads entirely too many James Kirk biographies."

"Funny you should bring that up," Janeway responds innocently. "Naomi just finished her first Starfleet easy reader--'Captain Kirk and the Kobayashi Maru.'"

"What am I going to do with all of you?" Chakotay groans, shaking his head.  
  
Above him, Naomi turns a cartwheel, then suggests, "Eat cake!"

***

"Well, I'm glad we're all enjoying the holodecks' final use," says B'Elanna a little regretfully as she scoops up the last bite of ice cream.  
  
"I can't think of a better way to send them out," Janeway says truthfully. "The ninety-eight crewmembers who aren't here will each get a very brief final session, but now that the holodecks' energy can actually be used for essential systems...well, this was a monumental achievement, B'Elanna. I know you might get a few glares in the halls from crewmembers who are choosing to be petty about the shutdown, and I'm sorry about that, but just remember that your discovery might save their lives some time in the not-too-distant future."  
  
"We're all very proud of you, Lanna," says Chakotay.  
  
"This is the most important technical innovation to occur since the point in time when I first joined the Voyager collective," Seven puts in. "The increase in the efficiency of this ship is significant."  
  
B'Elanna's eyebrows shoot halfway to her hairline. "Why, uh, thank you, Seven."  
  
Seven stabs a tidy forkful of cake, a slight glow of pleasure in her eyes.  
  
Janeway sighs. "Holodeck time has been such an asset to the psychological and social development of this crew. I can't understate the value of that, even if more fundamental concerns have to come first now that the power systems are merged. Next time we have a power glut, we should certainly ration some power to start them up again."

As Tom opens his mouth to respond, Janeway spots Naomi standing just behind the helmsman, presumably having snuck over from her mother's circle to eavesdrop, wide-eyed, on Voyager's senior staff. Janeway is just about to alert the group to the girl's presence so that they can discuss something more age- and birthday-appropriate when little half-Ktarian points up to the holo-sky with one sticky hand. "What about that?"

Tom turns at the words. "Oh, hello, Naomi."

"What about that?" Naomi repeats, still pointing.

"You want to go up in the air again?" Janeway grins.

Naomi regards her with utter seriousness. "No. Why don't you do that?"

"I'm sorry, what do you mean?" Janeway gives Naomi her full attention, matching her most diminuitive crewmember's serious expression.

"Why don't you put a floor in the ceiling? Maybe...three or four floors up in the ceiling? Then lots and lots and lots of people could use it at once," Naomi explains earnestly.

Janeway opens her mouth, then shuts it again. B'Elanna meets her gaze, eyes wide.  
  
"Could--?"  
  
"I don't see any reason why not."  
  
"The energy savings would be subsantial. A holodeck up and running is a holodeck up and running. It doesn't much matter if it's projecting a multi-story building; it shouldn't matter if it's projecting sepparate levels for separate crewmembers with entirely separate environments."  
  
"Well, Naomi. I think we may have to make you Engineer's Assistant as well as Captain's." B'Elanna gives Naomi a pat on the back, laughing with excitement. Naomi looks like she might explode with pride, but she has eyes only for her ultimate hero, Voyager's captain.

Janeway beams at her assistant, more than happy to give her the praise she shyly seeks. "Well done, crewman. This is quite a contribution you've made today. Even if it doesn't pan out," she adds, knowing the value of hedging one's bets where children's egos are concerned, "I'm sure B'Elanna can tell you about how important it is for engineers and all officers to think about problems in creative ways, and you've given us a very, very powerful reminder of that." She side-eyes her first officer. "The Kirk bios seem to be doing more good that harm, don't they, Commander?"

Chakotay grins, ruffling the little girl's hair. "You know, someday we'll be reading the biography of Captain Wildman. And the story of your discovery today will be on the very first page."  
  
***

"Well, I think Naomi enjoyed her celebration," Janeway says as the command team walks together towards the turbolift, a laugh still in her voice.  
  
Chakotay chuckles slightly, but there's a trace of sadness in it as well as mirth. "I hope so."  
  
Janeway watches his face out of the corner of her eye as they step into the lift, her own smile fading.  
  
She knows he shouldered a lot of responsibility at an early age. Sometimes--in calm of discussing the duty roster, or the tense instant after one of them comms Sam as the dust settles from a spacial anomaly or engagement--she gets the sense that Chakotay, even more viscerally than the rest of the crew, is haunted by the fear that life on a stranded starship will force a similar amount of pressure onto Naomi. The small girl's realization today as she eavesdropped on a not-so-trivial ship's problem might be stirring emotions other than pride in Chakotay's heart.  
  
"It's not always an easy life for her, here on Voyager," she says softly. "But...Chakotay, our home is at war. Even before that, few lives are perfect even in the safety of Federation space. No matter where we are, we won't always be able to protect our children from the universe."  
  
He looks at her then. "Computer, pause turbolift."  
  
The lift slides to a gentle halt. "Kathryn, how did you know exactly what I was thinking?" he asks, a sad smile in his voice.  
  
She grins slightly. "I learned from the best."  
  
He smiles for real then. "Trying to cheer your first officer up with flattery, hm?"  
  
"Is it working?"  
  
"Always."  
  
She reaches out to lay a hand on his chest. "You're a good caretaker to Naomi. She looks up to you. You protect her from what you can. And you and the rest of the crewmembers who help her mother care for her...you make her happy. You do. We've created a safe and happy life for her, as much as we can, even all the way out here in the Delta Quadrant. Her mother most of all, but it's taken a village...a starship. And I hope you're proud of your part in that, because you should be."  
  
For a moment it looks as though he's struggling to speak. "Kathryn..."  
  
She stares into his eyes, but he seems to have lost his voice again. They stand there a moment in the stilled lift, and a memory from years ago flickers across Janeway's conciousness--the last time she stood sharing space and physical contact with someone in a lift, even if it turned out to be only a hallucination. The supposed kiss from Mark has greater weight in her mind than anything unreal should, if only because it was her only moment of physical intimacy in the Delta Quadrant aside from her kiss with Kashyk. Which, in its own way, wasn't exactly real either.  
  
Gazing at Chakotay's tired face, she finds herself wondering if he, too, is starved for physical contact and the comfort it can provide. Even if she can't carry all his worries away any more than he can vanquish hers, there is something that is in her power to give him, and impulsively, she slides the hand on his chest up over his shoulder and steps forward, wrapping both arms around him in a long, tight hug.  
  
She can feel his body stiffen in utter shock for a few moments. Then he relaxes and wraps his arms around her, rubbing her back gently with his big hands after she pats his back lightly with hers. She is enveloped in his warmth, her cheek pressed against his uniform jacket. She hadn't been thinking, as she reached out for him, of the comfort that she would receive as well as give, but in his arms she feels safe and secure, held by him and held by Voyager, the ship's systems purring around her, powered by the others who protect Naomi, and her, and him, and each other.  
  
She squeezes Chakotay tightly, hoping that he feels the same warmth and safety, that after all their pain and differences over the years, she still has the power to bring him peace. In a few moments, they will let go and step away from each other--physically, anyway. But as she holds him in her arms and is held in return, it feels to Janeway as though time and space spin around them, cradling them, and this moment is infinite, a point of love and light shining as bright as the brightest of stars.


End file.
